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Boulder County receives completed ballots from 20% of voters so far

By John Fryar

Staff Writer

Posted:
11/03/2017 06:45:57 PM MDT

Updated:
11/03/2017 06:54:59 PM MDT

Election judge Jon Sterling takes a ballot from a passenger in a car at the drive-by ballot drop-off location in the 500 block of Terry Street in Longmont on Friday afternoon. (Lewis Geyer / Staff Photographer)

Further information: People can check the status of their ballots, the accuracy of their voter registration information, update that registration if necessary, and can find links for their local in-person and ballot drop-off locations at a Colorado Secretary of State's website, govotecolorado.com

Boulder County had received completed ballots from fewer than a quarter of its active voters as of Friday afternoon, according to the Clerk and Recorder's Office.

Turnouts were also below the 25 percent level as of Friday morning in Broomfield and in Weld County, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's Office.

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Boulder County had 217,195 active voters on its registration rolls as of Friday. It had received completed ballots from 43,695 voters by Friday afternoon, about a 20 percent countywide turnout at that point.

"We are on pace with turnout with other off-year elections," said Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall.

"However, with all the recent news and attention on elections and voting rights, I would really love to see Boulder County residents exercise their voice and cast a ballot," Hall said.

"Even if you only vote on issues you are comfortable with or have had time to research, it is an important demonstration of your constitutional right and say in local government," Hall said.

Voters in the Boulder County cities of Boulder, Lafayette, Louisville and Longmont are being asked to mark their ballots with their choices of the people seeking city council seats. Voters in each of those cities also have the opportunity to help decide the fates of a number of municipal ballot questions.

The current voter-registration totals and the Friday afternoon ballots-received tallies from each of those cities thus far, according to the Boulder County clerk's Elections Division:

Voters living inside the Boulder Valley School District are casting ballots in school board contests. Voters throughout Boulder County, whether or not they live within a city with local council contests and municipal ballot questions, are being asked to say yes or no on three countywide ballot questions.

Those heading-into-the-weekend turnout tallies in a primarily-mail-ballot election will increase by the time the "polls close" on Tuesday, Election Day.

However, voters who had not already mailed back their completed ballots by this past Tuesday — along with voters still making up their minds — must get their ballots back to their county clerks by 7 p.m. this coming Tuesday.

They will have to return those completed ballots by taking them to one of their county's Voter Service and Polling Centers, by delivering them to elections workers staffing drive-by drop-off locations, or by depositing them in one of their county's 24-hour ballot drop-off boxes.

According to the Colorado Secretary of State's Office, Broomfield, which had 49,925 active voters on its rolls as of Nov. 1, had received completed ballots from 10,599 voters as of Friday morning, about a 21 percent turnout at that point.

Broomfield voters are considering candidates for mayor and five council seats as well as a charter amendment question relating to the health and environmental impacts of oil and gas drilling.

Weld County Clerk Carly Koppes said that county had 169,963 active voters on its countywide rolls as of Friday and had received completed ballots from 26,040 of those voters, about 15 percent of the total, by Friday afternoon.

Voters throughout Weld are considering whether to eliminate the Weld County Council, which now has some oversight responsibilities over the county commissioners. Firestone voters are deciding whether to approve a sales tax to help pay for a new public safety facility, while Dacono voters are considering a set of proposed town charter amendments as well as two uncontested council spots.

Koppes said Firestone had 8,090 active registered voters on the county rolls as of Friday and that Weld's elections department had received completed ballots from 1,643 of those voters, about 20 percent, by Friday afternoon.

Koppes said 241 Dacono voters had returned completed ballots to her office as of Friday afternoon, 8 percent of the town's 2,935 registered voters.

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